By Madeleine Wahlberg
Yesterday I had an unannounced visitor at the door. You might think the 1st of August had marked the start of silly season, but this is HS2 Ltd acting normally.
I asked to see their covered ID, and the caller announced they were from Terra Quest acting on behalf of HS2 Ltd. What did they want? Well, never mind that HS2 Ltd have been writing to us over the last 7 years – Terra Quest wanted to check they had the right address, so that HS2 Ltd could write us!!
This sounded so strange that I looked up their website and saw that Terra Quest “Assists organisations to streamline their processes in order to realise time and cost savings and enhance quality by driving out efficiencies.”
Presumably HS2 Ltd contracted out this work because of the clear “…time and cost savings” they would reap by sending a man to our door to ask us for information that they have already used over 8 years?? Not only that, but they sent out a bloke to our house, and after he had found it, he still had to ask if it was the right house! It’s a good job he had the address!
Your taxes and mine have paid for this. I’m sure you’ll agree that “… driving out efficiencies” rather nicely sums up HS2.
Oh dear, censorship? I must have been right about not wanting to post anything positive to help others!! I’m disappointed just because it is obviously assumed by the administrators that I am pro-HS2. You may have to modify your views!
After July 17 th announcement . We received a letter from HS2 saying how sorry they were to notify us that we were still in the confirmed route for HS2b . Their letter had the right address but then large heading .. This letter refers to .. our Cottage name at a totally different Post code … A farm house two miles away .
I sent a somewhat short letter to the sender and shock horror an Engagement manager phoned us first thing the next morning. Surprisingly he had not checked where we were , didn’t know our cottage was built in 1664 Grade 2 listed but promised to try and help . We live in hope .
Although this may sound a bit silly at first sight, it IS actually a useful exercise. On ALL recent major projects from JLEP, CTRL, Crossrail and NLEP, the Books of Reference used to identify the “Safeguarded” areas have been used as a source for communications. These books, by the time a project comes to fruition, are invariably out of date and they do not necessarily reflect the up-to-date information of property ownership, how many units in a property and whether it may have been redeveloped or has changed ownership or use.
As a Community Liaison Representative/Consultant/Officer for both the Client and Contractor on ALL the above projects I found that working with out of date details was a major problem when contacting affected residents, owners of property or housing associations etc. etc. when urgently needing to agree things like the installation of essential monitoring equipment, visits for pre-construction defect surveys etc. and, generally, to have the correct details to hand when wishing to communicate with occupants of property which may be affected by the work.
The seeming lack of adequate communication systems is something that has been strongly criticised during past public enquiries and, indeed, during the Hybrid Bill hearings in both houses of Parliament for HS2. If HS2 are indeed carrying out a fact finding exercise along the route to improve the future communication situation, they should be commended for doing so before the major work commences.
I DID think that this may have helped some affected parties by now but I note that it has not yet been moderated. Do you only publish BAD news?